It was Colonel Haruna Dasuki who ordered that I return to the hospital in military style: “maza maza dawo asibiti,” on what easily became one of the darkest days in my history. On November 14, 2016, we confronted one of our deepest fears – our father, Sultan Ibrahim Dasuki, died.

He died minutes after his eminence, Sultan Sa’ad Abubakar, left his bed side. Unknown to us, this was a farewell visit from the symbol and custodian of the institution my father revered until his last moments, the caliphate.

We, his children hoped that somehow he will pull through this hurdle like he had done throughout his eventful life. Although he would have been ninety-three years old today, December 31, 2016, it was not enough to neutralize our grief. Baba taught us many lessons in life and in death; he continues to teach us more.

Every part of him told a story; his eyes, his mannerisms, his speech – a story of faith, honor, industry, contentment, sacrifice, duty and dependability. One of his mantras was “abun da ka shuka, shi za ga girba: ku shuka alheri” meaning “you reap what you sow; therefore sow good things”. He served this nation diligently in various capacities which all contributed to the formation of his solid character.

He was private secretary to the great premier of Northern Nigeria, Sir Ahmadu Bello. He moved on to head the Northern Grains Board, which at the time managed the famous groundnut pyramids. In the private sector, he chaired the board of African International bank (AIB) before his eventual coronation as the 18th sultan of Sokoto. He left indelible marks along the way, building lifelong bonds with his associates.

Their condolence messages show the unique bonds they shared with him; each with a different narrative. From Traditional rulers to captains of industry to political office holders to average Joes; his network was vast and diverse. At the home front, he was our hero. Each and every one of us connected with him in a different way.

He was unison, he brought sanity and he was the power horse behind the scenes that ensured we carried on in life with dignity. If there was a problem, we were confident that he would fix it regardless of the magnitude. He was not perfect and neither is our family. However, he navigated our imperfections in a perfect manner.

Some of us experienced hilarious shock upon discovering our biological mothers around the ages of eight or nine. This is the flavor of polygamy which my father practiced. He nurtured such trust amongst our mothers that each of them raised children birthed by others with unparalleled grace. He was equitable yet strict, certainly not one to shift the goal post.

Discipline was very important to him. There were times when he asked children of our domestic staff to punish us when we derailed. I am not sure if it was the finesse of my brother Col. Sambo Dasuki or the quest for discipline that made him send my generation of Dasukis to military schools. While Ibrahim, Haruna and I went to Nigeria Military School and NDA in Kaduna, Muhammadu Buhari, and the girls attended Airforce Military schools in Jos respectively. Reflecting on my moments with him brings mixed feelings; Sadness for obvious reasons and Joy, for Baba left a part of him in each and every one of us his children. For instance, our eldest sister, Ya Amina, wife of the Sardauna of Sokoto, Alhaji Abubakar Alhaji, knew Baba for longer than any of us. Perhaps this is why she radiates the best part of him, his superlative virtue of patience.

Despite belonging to a different generation, Baba’s advice was somehow always applicable and relevant to contemporary situations. In March 2010 when I was at a crossroads in my life; precisely when I was considering seeking elective office, I approached him and stated with conviction my motivation and desire to run for office. I described the landscape, the opportunities and threats. He listened attentively to my grandiose presentation. His advice was concise but deep. He told me categorically to return to the grassroots and prove my worth to the people at that level.

“How can you aspire to lead a people with whom you have seasonal contact?”

That was quintessentially Baba. Not one to evade or beat around the bush to please you. I walked away from that room still unsure of what the future held but with a clear understanding of the enormity of the responsibility that lay ahead.

It was not my birthright; I had to earn it. This is the way that our father eased our paths – not with silver and gold but with his values, principles, wisdom, humor, courage, strength and most importantly prayers. No conversation about Sultan Dasuki will be complete without talking about his courage.

He ingrained confidence and fearlessness in each and every one of his children. He never got tired of urging us to “fear no one but Allah” and “beg no one but Allah”. This will later put him on a collision course with late General Sani Abacha and lead to his deposition and subsequent unjust incarceration for years in Zing, Taraba State. The rest they say is history. One of his proudest moments as a father was when he learnt while in detention that his children refused to beg General Abacha for his release.

Upon his return, he met a household that was understandably apathetic towards the General. He reacted by lecturing us on the fruitlessness of hatred and requested that we pray for the repose of the General’s soul. Incidences like these defined my father. I could never do justice to my father in a few paragraphs but I owe it to him to embody his values in the course of my own life. By divine decree, we are entrusted with a duty towards our people as envisioned by our ancestors. As the constant in our lives, his presence made us complacent in a way.

His absence on the other hand, unearths the fact that the oars rest squarely on our shoulders to perpetuate his ideals for the benefit of current and future generations. He leaves us the legacy of an exemplary life occasioned by trials which he wouldn’t let define him. Clearly, the real test of Baba’s disciples begins now and I get the feeling we are well prepared. I conclude in these regulatory words of my father: “Honorable is far more than a name prefix; to be honorable is to be dutiful and to be dutiful is to be mindful of the various layers of expectation of your people”. May Allah grant him al-jannah firdaus and make it easy for us to complete the good work that he started.

. Abdussamad Dasuki is a member of the House of Representatives for Kebbe/Tambuwal Federal Constituency of Sokoto State. [myad]

On a week when a number of local airlines either cancelled or rescheduled flights owing to a scarcity of aviation fuel, all 21 recently released schoolgirls kidnapped in 2014 by Boko Haram militants in the northeastern town of Chibok managed to board a flight from Nigeria’s capital, Abuja, and travel back to the scene of their abduction.

Their return was portrayed by the government as a kind of victory lap at a time when, it is said., no area in the region is held by the jihadists. Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari announced on Friday that Boko Haram’s last remaining camp in the dense Sambisa Forest had being seized by Nigerian forces, although the so-called Islamic State, with which one faction of Boko Haram is allied, claimed on the same day that it had “killed and wounded many” in an attack on an army barracks in Yobe, another state in the northeast.

The jihadists may have lost their last major stronghold, but those who run either of the two factions of the sect are still alive. Militants loyal to erstwhile leader Abubakar Shekau, and those loyal to the new ISIS-appointed leader, Abu Musab al-Barnawi, are rumored to still have hideouts in the northeast, and they certainly do have bases in neighboring Niger, Chad and Cameroon.

Of the 100 men named in the most wanted terrorists list released by the army last year, only a handful have been captured. The others continue to run both factions, and only the 21 who travelled to Chibok on Thursday have been released this year. The worldwide #bringbackourgirls campaign that focused on the liberation of more than 200 young women from Chibok still has a long way to go.

Since their release in October, the 21 have been treated like VIPs. They visited Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari days after a deal brokered by the International Red Cross and the Swiss government was reached with Boko Haram for their release, and they got the president’s assurance that the government will assume “the responsibility for their personal, educational and professional goals and ambitions in life.”

From the time they regained their freedom the girls have lived under tight vigilance in Abuja, and have received much attention from the government and the media. Even when they arrived in Yola on Dec. 23, they were accompanied by CNN correspondent Isha Sesay and received by Adamawa State Governor Mohammed Jibrilla.

In far away Washington, D.C., two previously kidnapped Chibok schoolgirls, who escaped from the militants in April 2014 and are currently studying in the U.S. on a scholarship, visited White House on December 17 to look at Christmas decorations.

Although it’s been a beautiful Christmas so far for these students, about 197 other Chibok schoolgirls still remain with the militants and the world is clamoring for their return.

But those aren’t the only schoolchildren abducted in northeastern Nigeria by Boko Haram. Far from it.

There are hundreds of school kids—many far younger than the Chibok girls— still held by the militants. Yet no one is talking about them.

Borom Mohammed’s four sons—Audu, Babagana, Mustapha and Bulama—were all kidnapped from their Islamic school by Boko Haram militants in March 2015 in the north-eastern town of Damasak in Borno state. That same day, Borom’s husband, Mallam Goni, also was seized by the insurgents when they stormed her compound. She and her three little daughters escaped.

It’s been over a year since that fateful day in which Boko Haram militants kidnapped hundreds of school children in Damasak, and Borom has not begun to recover.

“She cries each time she sees young people around her,” says Bukkar Hassan, her neighbor in Damasak, whose two female cousins were kidnapped by Boko Haram on the same day as Borom’s sons and husband. “Young people remind her of her missing boys.”

It’s now nearly two years since Borom’s sons and husband were seized by the militants, and there have been no words from their captors concerning their whereabouts, and no comment from the government regarding the issue.

On that same day they were kidnapped, Boko Haram militants seized hundreds of other school children in Damasak, according to a report of Human Rights Watch (HRW) released in March.

HRW said the militants occupied Zanna Mobarti Primary School in Damasak in November 2014 after taking control of the town. This was mmore than six months after the Chibok kidnappings.

At least 300 students were in the building, and in the months that followed, the insurgents forced the captured children to learn the Quran. When coalition forces from Chad and Niger closed in on Damasak in March 2015, the jihadists fled the town, taking along the 300 schoolchildren.

But those were not all.

As Boko Haram left Damasak, students who attended the Mohammed Goni Primary School and the Al Manil Islamic School. where Borom’s children received their education  also were taken. Among them, according to Hassan, were his cousins Umrama, 8, and Yachalu, 13.

“They were captured on their way back from school,” says Hassan, who now lives in Maiduguri. “Up ‘til this moment, no one has heard anything about them.”

Students who attended the Government Secondary School (GSS), Damasak,  also were kidnapped by Boko Haram on that same day at their homes, according to staff of GSS who spoke to The Daily Beast. The school had closed for the session at the time of the invasion.

Mallam Abubakar, a school teacher at GSS, said the insurgents did storm the school on that day with the hope of abducting school children, but they found just a few teachers, including Abubakar. in the building. Luckily, all the teachers escaped into the river close to the Nigerien border town of Diffa.

“Policemen also escaped into the river,” Abubakar said.  “It was hard to immediately contact the media or anyone [to report the incident] because telephone lines were not functional in Damasak.”

Abubakar who now lives in Maiduguri, said many of the captives may never be recovered as the jihadists moved them to neighboring Niger.

“Two of my female students who escaped from Boko Haram told me they were taken along with other children to Diffa in Niger,” he said. “The girls said some of their friends were married out to the militants.”

The numbers of school children taken by Boko Haram in Damasak exceed the 276 schoolgirls who were kidnapped from Chibok in April 2014. But unlike the Chibok abductions which gained global attention and massive calls for action, the Damasak kidnappings was hardly reported in the media. And while the ‘Bring Back Our Girls’ movement that has been pressuring the government to rescue the missing  Chibok girls continues to be heard, there has been no pressure group doing same for the kidnapped Damasak students.

A community organizer in Maiduguri told me he and a few friends thought about starting a movement to put pressure on the government of former President Goodluck Jonathan to rescue the Damasak children, but were discouraged by local administrators who said the focus of the government was on the Chibok girls, and so, no one would listen to them.

When they brought back the idea months after President Muhammadu Buhari took office and with nothing coming from the government concerning the missing children, they were discouraged by local politicians who warned them against embarrassing the president who comes from the same northern region.

“The first time they [local administrators] said we should wait until the government rescues the Chibok girls before we can talk about Damasak,” said the man who did not want to be identified for fear of being victimized by local authorities. “When we brought it up again they [local politicians] said we will be unfair to our person [Buhari].”

On the day the militants fled Damasak, they not only took away the school children and the other captives held for months at the Zanna Mobarti Primary School, they also moved round the town, kidnapping children who were under 15 years of age including Hassan’s two sisters, Aisha, 9, and Falmata, 13.

“I have lost sisters and cousins, who should be in school to Boko Haram,” said Hassan, whose house was also burned down during the raid. “I lost everything, and I haven’t being myself since then.”

Hassan didn’t just lose his house and relatives to Boko Haram, he said he knows over 10 other people abducted in Damasak by the militants, and their families are still grieving over their kidnap.

“Borom [Mohammed] in particular is inconsolable,” he said. “Every male figure in her life has been seized from her.”

Unlike the abducted Chibok schoolgirls whom the Nigerian government says it is in contact with their captors for their release, authorities are yet to speak about the Damasak kidnappings.

The Daily Beast tried to contact presidential media adviser Femi Adesina for comments on the issue, but emails sent directly to him and to the government’s media office were not answered.

More than a year after the abductions, activists have called on the government to take urgent steps to secure the release of these victims.

“Three hundred children have been missing for a year, and yet there has been not a word from the Nigerian government,” Mausi Segun, a researcher at HRW, said in the organization’s report on the incident. “The authorities need to wake up and find out where the Damasak children and other captives are—and take urgent steps to free them.”

Culled from The Daily Beast. [myad]

On Christmas Eve, Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari announced that the Nigerian army had driven the remnants of Boko Haram out of its last stronghold, the Sambisa Forest. A Nigerian army spokesman said that it had recovered Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau’s personal copy of the Koran and his flag from “Camp Zero,” apparently the Boko Haram headquarters. An army spokesman said that the chief of Army Staff would present the holy book to President Buhari. The army also said that it had arrested 1,240 suspected Boko Haram terrorists.

However, on Christmas Day, Shekau made a new video–his first since September–in which he claimed that Boko Haram is “safe.” The video, twenty-five minutes long and in Hausa and Arabic, is typically defiant: “We are safe. We have not been flushed out of anywhere. And tactics and strategies cannot reveal our location except if Allah wills by his decree.” He also said, “The war is not over yet. There is still more… Our aim is to establish an Islamic caliphate and we have our own caliphate, we are not part of Nigeria.” He accused President Buhari of lying.

What is the truth? The captured Koran and flag, if they truly belonged to Shekau, would indicate that the army had indeed occupied “Camp Zero.” On the other hand, the Nigeria Security Tracker shows continuing Boko Haram activity throughout December. The Shekau video appears to be authentic. Shekau’s rival within Boko Haram, Abu Musab al-Barnawi is silent, and Shekau made no reference to him. Neither the video nor the army have made reference to the whereabouts of the remaining Chibok school girls. Of the 1,240 “terrorists” the army claims to have arrested, a spokesman said 413 were adults (apparently male), 323 “female adults,” 251 were “male children,” and 253 were “female children.” The army spokesman said, “We are interrogating them to know whether they are Boko haram members, because there is no way somebody that is not their member would live inside Sambisa forest.” Perhaps. But the description of those arrested raises the possibility that at least some were civilians caught up in the war.

A hypothesis is that both President Buhari and Abubakar Shekau are telling the truth: Boko Haram has indeed been pushed out of the Sambisa forest, but it has re-established its headquarters elsewhere in the Lake Chad Basin. Shekau is likely correct when he says the war is not yet over. [myad]